Display panel and manufacturing method thereof, and display device

This application is the United States national phase of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2022/088671, filed Apr. 24, 2022, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

The present disclosure relates to a display panel and a manufacturing method thereof, and a display device.

With the development of the display technology, the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel is more and more extensively applied.

In a display panel, light emitted by a light-emitting device (for example, OLED) in a sub-pixel may pass through a plurality of film layers with different refractive indexes, thereby causing light loss.

According to one aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, provided is a display panel, comprising: a base substrate; a pixel defining layer located on one side of the base substrate and having a plurality of first openings for defining a plurality of sub-pixels, wherein the plurality of first openings is in one-to-one correspondence to the plurality of sub-pixels; and an encapsulation layer located on one side of the pixel defining layer away from the base substrate. The encapsulation layer comprises: a first inorganic layer; a second inorganic layer located on one side of the first inorganic layer away from the base substrate; an organic layer located between the first inorganic layer and the second inorganic layer; and at least one first optical structure located between the first inorganic layer and the organic layer, wherein a refractive index of each first optical structure is greater than a refractive index of the organic layer.

In some embodiments, each first optical structure comprises a first surface and a second surface arranged oppositely, and a third surface and a fourth surface arranged oppositely, wherein the second surface is located on one side of the first surface away from the base substrate, each of the third surface and the fourth surface is adjacent to the first surface and the second face, a comprised angle between each of the third surface and the fourth surface and the first surface is in one of a first range and a second range, wherein the first range is greater than or equal to 60 degrees and smaller than or equal to 90 degrees, and the second range is greater than or equal to 100 degrees and smaller than or equal to 120 degrees.

In some embodiments, a surface of the first inorganic layer away from the base substrate has a plurality of recess portions in one-to-one correspondence to the plurality of first openings, the at least one first optical structure is in one-to-one correspondence to at least one recess portion of the plurality of recess portions, and each first optical structure is at least partially located in a recess portion corresponding to each first optical structure.

In some embodiments, each first optical structure comprises a first portion located in the recess portion and a second portion outside the recess portion, and an orthographic projection of the first portion on the base substrate is located within an orthographic projection of the second portion on the base substrate.

In some embodiments, an area of the orthographic projection of the first portion on the base substrate is smaller than an area of the orthographic projection of the second portion on the base substrate.

In some embodiments, an orthographic projection of each first optical structure on the base substrate is a fourth orthographic projection, an orthographic projection of a first opening corresponding to each first optical structure on the base substrate is a first orthographic projection, a region that the fourth orthographic projection and the first orthographic projection overlap with each other is a first region, and at least one of the fourth orthographic projection or the first orthographic projection comprises the first region and a second region other than the first region.

In some embodiments, the fourth orthographic projection comprises the second region, a part of an edge of the fourth orthographic projection overlapping with the second region of the fourth orthographic projection is a first edge, a part of an edge of the first orthographic projection overlapping with the first region is a second edge, and a minimum distance between the first edge and the second edge is smaller than or equal to 3 microns.

In some embodiments, the first orthographic projection comprises the second region, a part of an edge of the first orthographic projection overlapping with the second region of the first orthographic projection is a third edge, a part of an edge of the fourth orthographic projection overlapping with the first region is a fourth edge, and a minimum distance between the third edge and the fourth edge is smaller than or equal to 1 microns.

In some embodiments, each first optical structure comprises a first surface and a second surface arranged oppositely, the second surface is located on one side of the first surface away from the base substrate, and the second surface is substantially parallel to a surface of the base substrate.

In some embodiments, each first optical structure comprises an organic body.

In some embodiments, each first optical structure further comprises an inorganic nanostructure located in the organic body.

In some embodiments, the inorganic nanostructure comprises at least one of a nanoparticle or a nanowire.

In some embodiments, a material of the inorganic nanostructure comprises at least one of zirconia or titania.

In some embodiments, the refractive index of each first optical structure is 1.65 to 1.95.

In some embodiments, a refractive index of the organic body is 1.5 to 1.6, and a refractive index of the inorganic nanostructure is 2 to 2.2.

In some embodiments, each first optical structure further comprises a photosensitizer.

In some embodiments, the encapsulation layer further comprises: a third inorganic layer located between the at least one first optical structure and the organic layer.

In some embodiments, the at least one first optical structure is not in contact with the organic layer.

In some embodiments, the at least one first optical structure is integrally provided with the first inorganic layer.

In some embodiments, the display panel further comprises: a first light modulation layer located on one side of the encapsulation layer away from the base substrate, the first light modulation layer comprising: a first light modulation sub-layer having at least one second opening, wherein the at least one second opening is in one-to-one correspondence to at least one sub-pixel; and a second light modulation sub-layer comprising a first light modulation portion located in each of the at least one second opening, wherein the first light modulation layer is configured such that light from each of the at least one sub-pixel propagates along a direction away from the base substrate after total reflection upon incidence on an interface between a side surface of the first light modulation portion in a second opening corresponding to each of the at least one sub-pixel and the first light modulation sub-layer.

In some embodiments, an orthographic projection of a first opening corresponding to each of the at least one sub-pixel on the base substrate is a first orthographic projection, and at least a part of an edge of the first orthographic projection has a recess.

In some embodiments, an orthographic projection of the second opening corresponding to each of the at least one sub-pixel on the base substrate is a second orthographic projection, and at least a part of an edge of the second orthographic projection has at least one of a recess or a protrusion.

In some embodiments, each of the at least one sub-pixel is a blue sub-pixel.

In some embodiments, the display panel further comprises: a second light modulation layer located on one side of the encapsulation layer away from the base substrate, the second light modulation layer comprising: a fourth light modulation sub-layer; and at least one second optical structure located between the encapsulation layer and the third light modulation sub-layer, wherein the refractive index of each second optical structure is greater than a refractive index of the fourth light modulation sub-layer.

In some embodiments, the display panel further comprises: a fifth light modulation sub-layer located between the at least one second optical structure and the encapsulation layer.

In some embodiments, the fifth light modulation sub-layer is integrally provided with the at least one second optical structure.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, provided is a display device, comprising the display panel according to any one of the above embodiments.

According to yet still another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, provided is a manufacturing method of a display panel, comprising: providing a base substrate; forming a pixel defining layer on one side of the base substrate, wherein the pixel defining layer has a plurality of first openings for defining a plurality of sub-pixels, and the plurality of first openings is in one-to-one correspondence to the plurality of sub-pixels; and forming an encapsulation layer on one side of the pixel defining layer away from the base substrate, comprising forming a first inorganic layer, at least one first optical structure, an organic layer and a second inorganic layer sequentially. The second inorganic layer is located on one side of the first inorganic layer away from the base substrate, the organic layer is located between the first inorganic layer and the second inorganic layer, and the at least one first optical structure is located between the first inorganic layer and the organic layer, wherein a refractive index of each first optical structure is greater than a refractive of the organic layer.

It should be appreciated that, the same or similar reference numerals refer to the same or similar components.

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description of the exemplary embodiments is merely illustrative and is in no way intended as a limitation to the present disclosure, its application or use. The present disclosure may be implemented in many different forms, which are not limited to the embodiments described herein. These embodiments are provided to make the present disclosure thorough and complete, and fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. It should be noticed that: relative arrangement of components and steps, material composition, numerical expressions, and numerical values set forth in these embodiments, unless specifically stated otherwise, should be explained as merely illustrative, and not as a limitation.

The use of the terms “first”, “second” and similar words in the present disclosure do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but are merely used to distinguish between different parts. A word such as “comprise”, “have” or variants thereof means that the element before the word covers the element (s) listed after the word without excluding the possibility of also covering other elements. The terms “up”, “down”, or the like are used only to represent a relative positional relationship, and the relative positional relationship may be changed correspondingly if the absolute position of the described object changes.

In the present disclosure, when it is described that a specific component is disposed between a first component and a second component, there may be an intervening component between the specific component and the first component or between the specific component and the second component. When it is described that a specific part is connected to other parts, the specific part may be directly connected to the other parts without an intervening part, or not directly connected to the other parts with an intervening part.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meanings as the meanings commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. It should also be understood that terms as defined in general dictionaries, unless explicitly defined herein, should be interpreted as having meanings that are consistent with their meanings in the context of the relevant art, and not to be interpreted in an idealized or extremely formalized sense.

Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail, but where appropriate, these techniques, methods, and apparatuses should be considered as part of this specification.

In a related art, the front light-emitting efficiency of a display panel, that is, the light-emitting efficiency perpendicular to a base substrate in the display panel, can be improved by providing an additional optical structure. For example, the optical structure comprises a layer with a high refractive index and a layer with a low refractive index, some light might be totally reflected upon incidence from the layer with a high refractive index to the layer with a low refractive index, so that the light that would not emit towards the front will emit towards the front or towards nearly the front, thereby improving the front light-emitting efficiency of the display panel.

The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a display panel which can further improve the front light-emitting efficiency.

is a schematic structure view showing a display panel according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in, the display panel comprises a base substrate, a pixel defining layer, an encapsulation layerand a light modulation layer(which may also be referred to as a first light modulation layerin certain embodiments). In some embodiments, referring to, the display panel further comprises a module layer. For example, the module layercomprises a touch layer, a polarizer layer and a cover plate sequentially located on one side of the light modulation layeraway from the base substrate.

For example, the base substratemay be a glass substrate. For another example, the base substratemay be a flexible substrate such as a polyimide (PI) substrate.

The pixel defining layeris located on one side of the base substrateand has a plurality of first openings Vfor defining a plurality of sub-pixels. Here, the plurality of first openings Vis in one-to-one correspondence to the plurality of sub-pixels. For example, the plurality of sub-pixels comprises a red sub-pixel R, a green sub-pixel G and a blue sub-pixel B.

It should be understood that, the display panel may also comprise other components not shown in, for example, a plurality of pixel driving circuits and a planarization layer covering the plurality of pixel driving circuits. The anode of each sub-pixel may be located on one side of the planarization layer away from the base substrateand connected to a pixel driving circuit. The pixel defining layermay be located on one side of the planarization layer and the anode away from the base substrate. Each first opening Vof the pixel defining layerexposes at least a part of an anode of a corresponding sub-pixel.

The encapsulation layeris located on one side of the pixel defining layeraway from the base substrate. As some implementations, the encapsulation layercomprises a first inorganic layer, a second inorganic layer, and an organic layerlocated between the first inorganic layerand the second inorganic layer.

The light modulation layeris located on one side of the encapsulation layeraway from the base substrate. The light modulation layercomprises a first light modulation sub-layerand a second light modulation sub-layer, and the refractive index of the second light modulation sub-layeris greater than that of the first light modulation sub-layer.

The first light modulation sub-layerhas at least one second opening Vin one-to-one correspondence to at least one sub-pixel. The second light modulation sub-layercomprises a first light modulation portionlocated in each second opening V. For example, the first light modulation sub-layerhas only one second opening Vcorresponding to one sub-pixel. For another example, the first light modulation sub-layerhas a plurality of second openings Vin one-to-one correspondence to a plurality of sub-pixels.

The light modulation layeris configured such that light from each of at least one sub-pixel propagates along a direction away from the base substrateafter total reflection upon incidence on an interface between the first light modulation portionin a corresponding second opening Vand the first light modulation sub-layer. For example,shows that light from the green sub-pixel G propagates along a direction perpendicular to the base substrateafter total reflection upon incidence on an interface between the first light modulation portionin a corresponding second opening Vand the first light modulation sub-layer.

It can be understood that, at least one sub-pixel corresponds to a first opening Vand a second opening V. Hereinafter, the orthographic projections of the first opening Vand the second opening Vcorresponding to each sub-pixel like this on the base substratewill be referred to as a first orthographic projection V′ and a second orthographic projection V′ respectively.